Making Care a Crime?

In February 2013 a report on the failure of care at Mid Staffordshire NHS trust was released. This link to the Kings Fund website will give you the gist of the report. 

And now the government is suggesting that 
THIS is the answer.

Unfortunately this is a typical Tory response to a crisis. LOCK EM UP!! Throw away the key! Some good hard Porridge will keep them honest!

Never mind that the jails are already busting to full and we can't even get or keep some of our most dangerous criminals inside. Now we have to lock up the some of the most put upon and undervalued members of Her Majesty's employee's.

This is a typical piece of "knee jerk" politics that is used to try and prove the government are all over the situation. 

Now I am not saying that there should be no response to the Francis report. He made up to 290 recommendations I am just saying this is the worst of all the options and the first the government have put forward.  

One of the witnesses at the inquiry claimed to have had pressure put on them not to report any issues. How much worse will that pressure be now that there will be threat of custodial sentences on the menu?

My experience (25 years, 5 Prime Ministers, 5 NHS trusts) is that these problems are not a single issue. This level of lack of care  is a symptom of a faulty trust wide culture.

 I have seen individuals picked up for poor practice but the area they work in identifies it. I have seen wards picked up for poor practice but at some level it has been picked up and flagged by trust wide procedures or by individuals. 

The level of wrong doing at Stafford can only have been due to a complete failure of the organization. It comes  from the top down. 

This legislation lands firmly at the feet of the doctors and nurses providing care with no regard for environment they are being asked to deal with. By that I mean the management. The staff on the front line are, of course, the care givers and lack of care means that they have done the lacking but to wedge a custodial sentence into the mix will make identifying the real fault almost impossible.

I know the charge will be "Willful neglect" but that means that nursing and medical staff, in each situation having to prove they are not criminally liable before they can actually find out what really went wrong. 

In my opinion there are organisations out there that would see staff imprisoned rather than admit that they had a helping hand in the situation. The legislation as set out only seems to refer the direct care givers. It should extend to the whole structure. From top to bottom. 

What happened to the CEO at Mid Stafford? He got a promotion.